am, but looking at
Hope. It was unusual for Hope to be singled out in this way when her
sister was present, and both the sisters noticed it and spoke of it
afterwards. They thought Madame Alvarez very beautiful and
distinguished-looking, and she impressed them, even after that short
knowledge of her, as a woman of great force of character.

"She was very well dressed for a Spanish woman," was Miss Langham's
comment, later in the afternoon. "But everything she had on was just a
year behind the fashions, or twelve steamer days behind, as Mr.
MacWilliams puts it."

"She reminded me," said Hope, "of a black panther I saw once in a
circus."

"Dear me!" exclaimed the sister, "I don't see that at all. Why?"

Hope said she did not know why; she was not given to analyzing her
impressions or offering reasons for them. "Because the panther looked
so unhappy," she explained, doubtfully, "and restless; and he kept
pacing up and down all the time, and hitting his head against the bars
as he walked as though he liked the pain. Madame Alvarez seemed to me
to be just like that--as though she were shut up somewhere and wanted
to be free."

When Madame Alvarez and the two sisters had joined the men, they all
walked together to the terrace, and the visitors waited until the
President and his wife should take their departure. Hope noticed, in
advance of the escort of native cavalry, an auburn-haired, fair-skinned
young man who was sitting an English saddle.

The officer's eyes were blue and frank and attractive-looking, even as
they then were fixed ahead of him with a military lack of expression;
but he came to life very suddenly when the President called to him, and
prodded his horse up to the steps and dismounted. He was introduced by
Alvarez as "Captain Stuart of my household troops, late of the Gordon
Highlanders. Captain Stuart," said the President, laying his hand
affectionately on the younger man's epaulette, "takes care of my life
and the safety of my home and family. He could have the command of the
army if he wished; but no, he is fond of us, and he tells me we are in
more need of protection from our friends at home than from our enemies
on the frontier. Perhaps he knows best. I trust him, Mr. Langham,"
added the President, solemnly, "as I trust no other man in all this
country."

"I am very glad to meet Captain Stuart, I am sure," said Mr. Langham,
smiling, and appreciating how the shyness of the Englishman mu